Beverage giant Nestlé opened a new Nespresso production facility at Romont, a town in Fribourg, Switzerland. The facility produces Nestlé’s Nespresso coffee capsules. Nespresso is a premium portioned coffee brand that is exported worldwide.

The Romont facility is the third production centre in Switzerland. Nestlé owns two other production and distribution centres in Switzerland, at Avenches and Orbe, respectively.

Nestlé announced plans to construct the new production centre in May 2012 while the construction was initiated in April 2013.The company invested Sfr300m ($316m) in the plant and has plans to invest an additional Sfr200m ($210m) on the expansion later.

The facility created 400 jobs during construction and currently employs 125 skilled workers. The new centre provides a sustainable and global market for the Nespresso products, which will be exported to meet the growing overseas consumer demand. The centre’s development is in-line with the company’s long-term investment strategy to cater the increasing future demand for Nespresso coffees worldwide.

Details of Nestlé’s Nespresso production centre in Romont

"The new centre provides a sustainable and global market for the Nespresso products."

The new Nestlé coffee factory in Romont has a surface area of about 21,000m² (226,042ft²) within an 11ha site. It was designed by Aubert Architectes, and was developed with the collaboration of Nestlé Nespresso, and the state departments of the Fribourg and the city of Romont.

The plant features a number of coffee production lines and roasting spaces. It also has silos to store green coffee and roasted coffee, an unloading area for coffee packaging products and a shipping centre for Nespresso products.

The facility also features laboratories to conduct technical experiments. The raw materials and products will be transported by rail. A new railway line will be constructed to connect the plant with the Berne-Fribourg-Lausanne line.

Production and processing at the Swiss Nespresso production facility

The coffee beans will be collected, composited and cleaned in the first stage of processing. The beans will be further blended and roasted to make various coffee products.

The plant produces classic Nespresso capsules and Grands Crus capsules, which are specially made for VertuoLine coffee makers. The machines are equipped with latest extraction technology and tailored for North Americans, who prefer large-cup coffees.

Sustainability features of Nestlé’s facility in Romont

The new facility is the first production site in Switzerland to achieve the LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) Gold certification.

It uses coffee roasting technology for coffee production. The technology produces renewable energy, which will further be used to heat up the building.

The design, construction and operations of the facility follow the sustainability framework of Nestle, which is known as Nespresso Ecolaboration.

The facility uses sustainable steps, such as waste sorting and product recycling, to increase the efficiency and productivity.The plant is able to produce high-quality sustainable coffee with an increased capsule collection recycling capacity and reduced carbon emissions.

Construction of the Nestlé’s Swiss centre

The site preparation works for the production centre were started in November 2012. The works included girdling of security fencing, installation of electrical supply and excavation works for the construction of a railway track.

Construction of the 40m-tall building required 25,000m³ of concrete, 35,000m² of façades, 500km of electric cables, 70km of pipes and ventilation ducts and 2400m of rails.

Marketing commentary for Nestlé’s Nespresso brand

Headquartered in Lausanne, Switzerland, Nestlé Nespresso is a key producer of coffee products worldwide. It operates in more than 60 countries and employs about 8,000 people. It generated sales of more than Sfr3bn ($3.1bn) and achieved a growth of 20% in 2012.